A chauffeured black car from London, Ontario to Kitchener-Waterloo with LondonLimo.net is 105 km northeast on the 401 and Highway 8, or Highway 7/8 through Stratford, in about seventy minutes off-peak, at a fixed rate shown before you confirm - a planning figure of $200-240 plus HST for a business sedan, $240-290 for an SUV, $400-480 for a Sprinter. Kitchener's Innovation District and Google's and the start-ups' offices, the David Johnston Research + Technology Park and the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier, Uptown Waterloo, Centre In The Square, the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium, Grand River Hospital, Bingemans and the Perimeter Institute are the addresses the chauffeurs know, and Waterloo airport at Breslau is fifteen minutes further east. Cambridge and Guelph have their own pages.
Why Londoners go to Kitchener-Waterloo
The technology companies and the universities are the reason for most of it: London's software, engineering and manufacturing firms have partners, customers and investors in the Innovation District and the research park; Western and Fanshawe graduates take jobs there; the University of Waterloo and Laurier draw London's students, and their parents drive up for the move-in, the convocation and the weekend. Grand River Hospital's regional cancer centre draws patients from the west; the Aud's Rangers games and the touring shows at Centre In The Square draw the evenings; Bingemans, the St. Jacobs market and the Mennonite country draw the family Saturday; and Flair's low fares from Breslau draw the sun-flight families. It is also the return leg for a Waterloo visitor coming to London, which the same chauffeur handles.
| From downtown London to | Sedan | SUV | Sprinter | Off-peak time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Downtown Kitchener, the Innovation District | $200-240 | $240-290 | $400-480 | 1 h 10 |
| Uptown Waterloo, the universities, the research park | $205-245 | $245-295 | $410-490 | 1 h 15 |
| The Aud, Centre In The Square, Grand River Hospital | $200-240 | $240-290 | $400-480 | 1 h 10 |
| St. Jacobs, Elmira, the Mennonite country | $215-255 | $255-305 | $420-500 | 1 h 25 |
| Region of Waterloo International Airport (YKF) | $190-230 | $230-280 | $390-470 | 1 h 05 |
| Kitchener-Waterloo day, hourly, chauffeur waiting | $95-115 / h | $115-135 / h | $145-175 / h | 3 h minimum plus the run |
LondonLimo.net planning ranges before HST, one way; the engine quotes the exact addresses and date. A same-day return with the chauffeur waiting is nearly always cheaper by the hour on this route.
The drive: the 401 or the 7/8
Two ways: the 401 east to the Highway 8 exit at Kitchener and up King Street or the Conestoga Parkway, seventy minutes; or Highway 7/8 through St. Marys, Stratford and New Hamburg, a two-lane country road that takes the same time on a good day, passes the Festival theatres and avoids the 401 when it closes at Ingersoll. The chauffeur chooses by the day and Ontario 511; the Conestoga Parkway at 5 p.m. is the only congestion the region offers. Uptown Waterloo is ten minutes beyond downtown Kitchener along King Street.
The Innovation District and the research park
Kitchener's Innovation District around the old Tannery and Breithaupt Block - Google, Communitech, the accelerators and the start-ups - and Waterloo's David Johnston Research + Technology Park beside the university, with its corporate campuses: a London technology company's day in the region is an hourly booking with three offices and lunch in Uptown, the chauffeur waiting, on the corporate account. The reverse - a Waterloo investor or partner visiting London - is the same chauffeur going the other way.
The universities: Waterloo, Laurier and the student calendar
The University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier are the region's two universities, side by side on University Avenue, with Conestoga College across Kitchener; London families send students to all three. The September move with a van of boxes, the parents' Thanksgiving visit, the exam-week pickup, the convocation in June, and the summer job's start and end: fixed rates and a household account. The Explore Waterloo Region site describes the campuses' neighbourhoods; the chauffeur knows the residence loading zones.
Grand River Hospital and the medical run
Grand River Hospital's regional cancer centre and St. Mary's General's cardiac programme take referrals from London and the west, and the family's day is a chauffeured run with the chauffeur waiting at the entrance, by the hour or as two fixed runs on a household account. The hospitals and medical page describes how the medical run is handled.
The Aud, Centre In The Square and the evening
The Kitchener Rangers at the Memorial Auditorium, the concerts and the touring musicals at Centre In The Square, the Oktoberfest halls in October, the Kitchener Blues Festival in August: the chauffeur drops at the door and waits by the hour or returns for a pickup moved by text; a Sprinter for fourteen from London at $400-480 one way is under $35 a head. The concerts, sports and events page has the detail.
St. Jacobs, Elmira and the Mennonite country
The St. Jacobs farmers' market on Thursdays and Saturdays, the village's shops, Elmira's maple-syrup festival in April, the horse-drawn buggies on the country roads north of Waterloo, the Elora Gorge an hour on: a family's Saturday from London by the hour with the chauffeur parked at the market and lunch in the village. The wine tour page's logic applies to the region's breweries and cideries.
Waterloo airport, fifteen minutes further
Flair's base at Breslau is the region's airport and the YKF page describes it; a Kitchener-Waterloo run that ends at a Flair or WestJet flight is one confirmation, and a Waterloo visitor landing at YKF for a London meeting is met with a name board and driven down the 401.
Cambridge, Guelph and Stratford around it
Cambridge is fifteen minutes south, Guelph twenty east, Stratford forty west on the 7/8: a London day that touches two of them is priced by the hour, and each has its own page and planning figure.
Winter on the 401 and the 7/8
The London-Woodstock stretch of the 401 closes in lake-effect squalls a few times each winter and the 7/8 through Stratford is the alternative, which is why the Kitchener run is rarely delayed; the Conestoga Parkway is cleared fast. Winter tires from November to April; all-wheel-drive SUVs on squall days; the fixed rate unchanged.
The honest alternatives
VIA Rail runs London to Kitchener on the Toronto line a few times a day and is a reasonable option for a solo traveller going station to station; GO Transit reaches Kitchener from Toronto, not from London; GRT's buses and the ION light rail are good once you are there. For door to door, the tech-park day, the student move, the hospital run, the arena night and the airport, the chauffeured fixed rate.
Three Kitchener-Waterloo bookings, as they actually ran
A start-up's investor day, Wednesday. A business sedan from a London office at 7 a.m., three meetings in the Innovation District and the research park by the hour, lunch in Uptown, and home at 5. On the corporate account; ten hours.
A Waterloo move-in, September. A luxury van from Byron with a student, two parents and the room in boxes, a residence on University Avenue by 10, and the parents home by 1. One fixed rate.
A Rangers game, Friday. An executive SUV for six from Old North at 5, the Aud at 6:45, and home at 11:30 on an hourly booking. Nobody drove.
Planning figures. Rates are LondonLimo.net planning ranges before HST, one way from downtown London; the engine quotes the exact addresses, date and vehicle. University, hospital, company and venue names describe where we drive and imply no affiliation.
Oktoberfest, the Blues Festival and the calendar
Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest in the second week of October fills the festhallen and the hotels and draws London groups by the Sprinter-load; the Kitchener Blues Festival in August, the Waterloo Busker Carnival, the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival in April and the Christmas markets at Kitchener City Hall are the others. Explore Waterloo Region publishes the dates; the chauffeur knows the closures and the party bus page has the group version of an Oktoberfest night.
The Kitchener-Waterloo hotels, from the chauffeur's seat
The Crowne Plaza and the Walper downtown Kitchener, the Delta and the Inn of Waterloo in Uptown, the university-district hotels on King Street North, the Cambridge and Breslau hotels by the airport: the travel desk books the room for a two-day set of tech-park meetings or a convocation weekend, on the file with the chauffeurs.
Conestoga College, the Perimeter Institute and the rest of the region
Conestoga College's Doon campus and its trades programmes, the Perimeter Institute for theoretical physics beside the university, the Waterloo Region Museum, Bingemans' water park and conference centre, the Chicopee ski hill, the Grand River's trails: each is a Kitchener-Waterloo address on the engine at the same planning figure, and a family's Saturday that touches two of them is by the hour.
Visitors coming the other way
A Waterloo technology company sending a team to a London customer, a Laurier professor examining at Western, a Grand River specialist visiting University Hospital: the same chauffeur, the same fixed rate in reverse, met in Kitchener or at YKF and delivered to London; the corporate account works for the visiting company, and the Waterloo airport page describes the meet and greet at Breslau.
Booking it
Two addresses on the reservation engine, the date and time, the vehicle class; the fixed rate appears; add the airport or a second stop if the day needs one, or book the region by the hour. Standing student-year bookings and corporate lines are set up by the desk; the rates page has the figures for Kitchener beside Cambridge, Guelph and Stratford.
Three questions the desk is asked about Kitchener-Waterloo
Is it cheaper to go by the 7/8 through Stratford? The rate is the same either way; the chauffeur chooses the road by the day. Can the chauffeur wait through a four-hour meeting at the research park? Yes, by the hour, which on this route is cheaper than two one-way fares. Can we collect a student at Laurier and drop a parent at YKF on the same run? Yes - a stop and the airport on one confirmation.
What the region looks like from the car
Farmland and Mennonite buggies on the 7/8, the Grand River at Kitchener, the old industrial core turned into technology offices at the Tannery, King Street's low-rise stretch between the two downtowns, the university campuses on the ridge above Uptown, and the ION light rail running down the middle of it all. The chauffeur knows the ION's crossings and the Conestoga Parkway's evening crawl, and the Region of Waterloo's site publishes the road work.
Cambridge and Guelph on the same run
A London day that touches Kitchener and Cambridge's Toyota plant, or Waterloo and Guelph's university, is priced by the hour with the chauffeur waiting at each; the three cities are within twenty minutes of one another and the hourly rate makes the day cheaper than three fixed runs.
